NEMA 10-30 30amp Wiring

[ceosam]

I'm trying to get this 10-30 NEMA outlet working with my Powerbox. I had this same powerbox, breaker, panel and outlet at another spot so I know they are working fine. It's a Powerbox 7500 incase anyone was wondering.

So my sparky leaves and I plug the powerbox in to check that it works, the LCD shows the time and I'm thinking everything is kosher. Now it comes time to fire some bulbs on it and although the screen is on, my ballasts will not fire. I'm thinking the powerbox got fucked in the move, so I tried it on the houses existing dryer outlet and it fires the bulb fine.

What is wired incorrectly? There is no ground on the outlet so I'm thinking the white instead of being connected to the panels neutral bar -- should be connected to the ground?

Help a brother out. I tried to get it done legit with an electrician but now its not possible for him to come over anymore if you know what I mean.

 

[budleydoright]

Did you meter the outlet? Breakers are off in photo.....

If you have lights on powerbox you likely have one leg of the 220 connected and one open.

re-seat all wires, you shouldn't see bare wire coming out of your receptical. Check connections in breaker. Sometimes if not properly stripped, the wire clamp on the breaker itself clamps down on the insulation.

If you don't have a meter go get one for 10 bucks and a home wiring book. A quick reading will give you a better understanding and may save you a few bucks in the end.

 

[rives]

Have you got a splice somewhere between the panel and the receptacle? The colors on the breaker appear to be white and black, whereas the plug has red & black for the hot legs. Also, why is there a 40 amp breaker feeding a 30 amp circuit? Not a good sign, particularly if this work was supposed to have been done by a qualified electrician.

 

[ceosam]

Did you meter the outlet? Breakers are off in photo.....

If you have lights on powerbox you likely have one leg of the 220 connected and one open.

re-seat all wires, you shouldn't see bare wire coming out of your receptical. Check connections in breaker. Sometimes if not properly stripped, the wire clamp on the breaker itself clamps down on the insulation.

If you don't have a meter go get one for 10 bucks and a home wiring book. A quick reading will give you a better understanding and may save you a few bucks in the end.

The breaker is off because I have the outlet unscrewed for the pics. When the breaker is on, it gives power to the powerbox (LCD comes on) but will not fire the ballast/bulb.

Have you got a splice somewhere between the panel and the receptacle? The colors on the breaker appear to be white and black, whereas the plug has red & black for the hot legs. Also, why is there a 40 amp breaker feeding a 30 amp circuit? Not a good sign, particularly if this work was supposed to have been done by a qualified electrician.

No splices, the black & red are on the "hot" of the outlet and connected to the hots on the 40amp breaker. The white is connected to the "L" on the outlet and runs to the neutral bus on the panel, may be hard to see because of the lighting.

40amp breaker is suggested by powerbox

 

[budleydoright]

Anyway to meter the panel? Make sure both hots are indeed hot. I'm stepping out of this one Rives forgets more in a day about this shit than I'll ever know.

 

[ceosam]

I'll have to pickup a meter tomorrow when the hardware store opens, thanks for the fast replies

 

[rives]

Regardless of what Powerbox recommends, you shouldn't be putting 40 amps on a 30 amp receptacle. The breaker is supposed to be the lightest-rated component in the circuit so that all downstream components are protected at that level. With your current arrangement, you can drive the receptacle at 133% of design capacity before the breaker even begins to see an overload. Bad deal. If you are using #10 wire, which is what a 30 amp circuit calls for, it gets worse. If you want to feed the box with 40 amps, step up to a 40 amp receptacle and #8 wire.

 

[ceosam]

I've run this exact setup for over a year without problems but respect your word and will drop down to a 30amp breaker.

What do you think of my original issue?

 

[rives]

The problem is that when something goes wrong, your protection isn't where it should be. If nothing goes wrong, you could run it straight off your 200 amp main or even the utility transformer, for that matter.

Assuming that everything is alright with the Powerbox, it sounds to me as though perhaps one leg of the breaker isn't making up - if they are pulling the controls off of the other leg to the neutral, then the control side would work, but there wouldn't be power for the light circuit. You might try tripping the breaker and resetting it a few time to see if that does it - if it does, then changing the breaker out would be a good idea.

When you get a meter, read from each hot leg to neutral - each one should read around 120v. Then go from hot leg to hot leg - you should have 240v there.

I would also suggest that you think about changing over to a 4-wire cordset and receptacle (Nema 14-30). The current configuration doesn't provide you with a legal ground.

 

[CmdrAppleton]

Get a bar or double poke breaker. Tying singles with a piece of wire will result in one tripping and not pulling tge other leg off with it. Safety issue for service.